Pablo, Christiani

Pablo, Christiani a Dominican monk, who flourished in the middle of the 13th century, but of whose early life nothing is known, is noted for his remarkable attainments. In Jewish history and literature Pablo was a party in the famous disputation at Barcelona with the learned Moses Nachmanides (q.v.), which lasted for four days (July 20-24, 1263). This public disputation took place by a decree of James I, king of Aragon, in order to put. a stop to the daily disputes that occurred between the Jews and those Dominican friars who had studied Hebrew and Arabic. The Dominicans were encouraged by their general, Raymund de Penaforte, whose attention was always directed towards the conversion of Jews .and Mohammedans. That Pablo was a convert from Judaism appears from a letter written by pope Clement IV to the king of Aragon, in which he says: "Ad haec autem dilectus filius noster Paulus, dictus Christianus reditur non modicum profuturus, quia ex Judceis trahens originem, et inter eos literis. Hebraeis instructus, linguam novit . . . et legem et errores illorum." The disputation referred to was first published, with omissions and interpolations, and a bad Latin translation, by Wagenseil, Tela ignea Satanae (Altorf, 1681). It was then published in the collection of polemical writings entitled מלחמת חובה, where it is the first of the series, and is called הרמבן עם פראי פולו וכוח, The Discussion of Ramban with Fra Paolo (Constantinople, 1710); and recently again by Steinschneider, Nachmanidis Disputatio publica pro fide Judaica (Berlin, 1860), with notes by the editor. Pablo also obtained a decree from the king of Aragon, by which the Jews were enjoined to open to him the doors of their synagogues and houses to dispute with them, to furnish him with all the books necessary to convince them, and to pay the expense of the cartage of his library, by deducting what they disbursed from the tribute they paid to the king. See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, p. 660 (Taylor's translation); Gratz, Gesch. d. Juden, 7:131-136, 149; Lindo, History of the Jews, p. 68; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 301 sq; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i, 965; iii, 910 sq.; Schmucker, History of the Modern Jews, p. 149; Kalkar, Israel u. die Kirche, p. 24; Jewish Expositor (Lond. 1826), p. 364 sq.; Frankhel's Monatsschrift fur Geschichte u. Wissenschaft des Judenthums (Breslau, 1865), 14:308 sq.; Huie, History of the Jews (Edinburgh, 1841), p. 126 sq.; Depping, Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age (Bruxelles, 1844), p. 231 sq. (B. P.)